Page 128 of Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

It was the best I could do in the darkness. I clung to the walls, one arm extended behind me to grip Atrius’s, and felt our way forward as we ran. Behind me, I heard the steady sound of blood dripping onto the rocks as Atrius dumped the final canteen behind us, leaving a crimson trail. When it was empty, he dropped the container.

And then we heard them coming, stirred by the scent.

My steps quickened. Atrius’s strides lengthened, our gaits shifting.I thought it would be impossible to truly run over these rocks. I was wrong. When you hear a herd of slyvik screams behind you, yourun.

“Which way?” Atrius barked. The air itself shivered with the beat of countless wings. We stumbled as the earth shook with the weight of their bodies against the rocks, growing frenzied.

The moment they saw us, the shrieks pierced the air. I could’ve sworn they were of delight.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

“That way,” I ground out, and dragged Atrius left, to a smaller path between the cliffs. Now only my fingertips brushed the walls, maintaining just enough of a connection to the stone to sense the path back

I’d tried to memorize the route before we started. I prayed I remembered right.

Another shriek curdled my blood. Atrius broke into a sprint, dragging me with him.

Weaver help me. Gods, I’d better remember that path.

“There!” I choked out, just in time, and the two of us rounded a corner sharply, nearly slamming into a wall.

The slyviks were great hunters. They didn’t lose their prey. Seconds later, we heard them behind us. They were gaining.

Soon they would be on us.

Neither of us could speak—no time for that—but I could feel the pressure building in Atrius’s presence, like a thread growing taut. Could feel his hand creeping toward his belt, just in case.

We were close.

We had to be.

I reached into the threads, checking our path?—

Pain shot through my shin as it struck a sharp rock.

I stumbled, my knees nearly hitting the ground. Warm blood spurted down my leg. Atrius grabbed me roughly and yanked me upright again, dragging me along, and not seconds too soon because that time, I felt the slyvik’s breath on my back.

We were going too slow.

I could feel the same realization settle over Atrius.

A littlefarther.

The turn was up ahead, just a little more?—

I grabbed Atrius and we took the next corner, gravel sliding beneath our feet, and I could feel movement in the threads above even if I didn’t have the time to focus on it, and we were going to make it?—

SNAP.

I was yanked backwards with enough force to knock the breath from my lungs.

The slyvik’s roar surrounded me, shaking my bones. A burst of damp, hot air engulfed me.

My shirt. It had grabbed my shirt?—

Before I could move, Atrius sprang into action. It was beautiful, the way he moved, with such sudden viciousness—like nothing ever caught him by surprise. His sword was out, and by the time I realized what was happening, his strike had already landed—right into the slyvik’s eye.

A screech of pain rattled the earth. The ground hit me hard, my legs collapsing under me. Atrius fell back, too, rolling and falling back into a clumsy crouch behind me. Before us, the slyvik reared back, blood dripping from its face, wings spreading wall-to-wall. Behind it, other snakelike bodies slithered through the mists as its nest-mates caught up to us, heads of teeth and starving eyes curling through the gaps in the stone to corner us.

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